Misguided tactic sparks GOP division

Published: Sunday, September 8, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, September 6, 2013 at 5:44 p.m.

Our congressman, U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, is leading the charge to defund health care reform, commonly known as Obamacare, even if it means shutting down the federal government. That strategy may play well with Republican primary voters, but it would be a political disaster for the GOP — as evidenced by the divisions now playing out between Republican leaders in North Carolina.

Meadows last month brought his campaign against Obamacare to a luncheon attended by about 85 conservatives at The Chariot. In the meeting, sponsored by FreedomWorks, a Washington D.C.-based conservative group, Meadows said his letter asking House leaders to strip Obamacare funding from a September appropriations bill has garnered 77 signatures from his colleagues.

The letter, which had 80 signatures last week, urges House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to “defund the implementation and enforcement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in any relevant appropriations bill brought to the House Floor in the 113th Congress, including any continuing appropriations bill.”

Meadows said the language proposed in his letter would achieve a different result than the 40 votes the House has already taken to defund Obamacare since 2011 because it would force the Senate to vote on the issue. The tea party wing of the party hopes a September tsunami of public opposition will force the Democratic-controlled Senate to reconsider its support and cave in the face of a threatened government shutdown.

This is a fantasy, considering that health care reform has already withstood numerous challenges, the two biggest being the president’s re-election and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold its key provisions.

Among those provisions is the individual mandate, the controversial requirement that all Americans to buy insurance or risk paying a fine. Who came up with such an idea to curtail Americans’ freedom, which Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks calls “this oppressive transfer of wealth from young Americans to the elderly”? It first appeared in a 1989 published proposal by Stuart M. Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation called “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” Fox News reported last year. More recently, it was a key part of the statewide health care reform that former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney signed into law in 2006 when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Despite its origins as a market-based alternative to single-payer, government-run health insurance, the mandate continues to be a major target of conservatives bent on undoing Obamacare. Now they are ready to play the nuclear card of shutting down the government. Apparently they have forgotten what happened when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried the same tactic back in 1996. That turned out to be a huge boost for then-President Bill Clinton.

Doing the same thing this year would amount to Republicans handing Democrats a gift that would keep on giving. This is why Obamacare, although almost universally despised by Republicans, has become a dividing line in the party, including here in North Carolina.

On the one hand are hard-liners like Meadows from districts now so firmly Republican that playing to the base is a safe strategy. On the other are pragmatists like Sen. Richard Burr who oppose the health care law but also oppose risking a shutdown.

U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger of Charlotte is among Republicans who have refused to sign Meadows’ letter. The resulting shutdown would mean no paychecks for members of the military, cuts in senior citizen services “and on and on and on,” but the health care law would remain in place because it’s funded with mandatory spending, Pittenger said in an article in News & Observer of Raleigh. “So I’m not going to convey to these wonderful people who are out there standing for our freedom that, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re not going to send you a paycheck because we have a little political game in Washington,’ ” he said.

Burr and Pittenger are right to realize the GOP cannot play this kind of misguided political game without paying a heavy price later. It’s time for the opposition to recognize that Obamacare is the law, and as Clinton chided last week, work to improve the law rather than keep trying rear-guard actions that will only end up hurting the GOP.

<p>Our congressman, U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, is leading the charge to defund health care reform, commonly known as Obamacare, even if it means shutting down the federal government. That strategy may play well with Republican primary voters, but it would be a political disaster for the GOP  as evidenced by the divisions now playing out between Republican leaders in North Carolina.</p><p>Meadows last month brought his campaign against Obamacare to a luncheon attended by about 85 conservatives at The Chariot. In the meeting, sponsored by FreedomWorks, a Washington D.C.-based conservative group, Meadows said his letter asking House leaders to strip Obamacare funding from a September appropriations bill has garnered 77 signatures from his colleagues.</p><p>The letter, which had 80 signatures last week, urges House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to defund the implementation and enforcement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in any relevant appropriations bill brought to the House Floor in the 113th Congress, including any continuing appropriations bill.</p><p>Meadows said the language proposed in his letter would achieve a different result than the 40 votes the House has already taken to defund Obamacare since 2011 because it would force the Senate to vote on the issue. The tea party wing of the party hopes a September tsunami of public opposition will force the Democratic-controlled Senate to reconsider its support and cave in the face of a threatened government shutdown.</p><p>This is a fantasy, considering that health care reform has already withstood numerous challenges, the two biggest being the president’s re-election and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold its key provisions.</p><p>Among those provisions is the individual mandate, the controversial requirement that all Americans to buy insurance or risk paying a fine. Who came up with such an idea to curtail Americans’ freedom, which Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks calls this oppressive transfer of wealth from young Americans to the elderly? It first appeared in a 1989 published proposal by Stuart M. Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation called Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans, Fox News reported last year. More recently, it was a key part of the statewide health care reform that former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney signed into law in 2006 when he was governor of Massachusetts.</p><p>Despite its origins as a market-based alternative to single-payer, government-run health insurance, the mandate continues to be a major target of conservatives bent on undoing Obamacare. Now they are ready to play the nuclear card of shutting down the government. Apparently they have forgotten what happened when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried the same tactic back in 1996. That turned out to be a huge boost for then-President Bill Clinton.</p><p>Doing the same thing this year would amount to Republicans handing Democrats a gift that would keep on giving. This is why Obamacare, although almost universally despised by Republicans, has become a dividing line in the party, including here in North Carolina.</p><p>On the one hand are hard-liners like Meadows from districts now so firmly Republican that playing to the base is a safe strategy. On the other are pragmatists like Sen. Richard Burr who oppose the health care law but also oppose risking a shutdown.</p><p>U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger of Charlotte is among Republicans who have refused to sign Meadows’ letter. The resulting shutdown would mean no paychecks for members of the military, cuts in senior citizen services and on and on and on, but the health care law would remain in place because it’s funded with mandatory spending, Pittenger said in an article in News & Observer of Raleigh. So I’m not going to convey to these wonderful people who are out there standing for our freedom that, Oh, by the way, we’re not going to send you a paycheck because we have a little political game in Washington,’  he said.</p><p>Burr and Pittenger are right to realize the GOP cannot play this kind of misguided political game without paying a heavy price later. It’s time for the opposition to recognize that Obamacare is the law, and as Clinton chided last week, work to improve the law rather than keep trying rear-guard actions that will only end up hurting the GOP.</p>